Popcaan’s Lawyer Bert Samuels Says JCF Sent ‘Defamatory’ Press Release To 94 Recipients

Popcaan‘s attorney-at-law Bert Samuels says his team discovered evidence that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) had deliberately disseminated an allegedly defamatory press release about the Dancehall star last year, contrary to their defense in the lawsuit filed over the matter.

Samuels was speaking to Entertainment Report’s Anthony Miller recently when he pointed out that the JCF sent the press release to approximately 94 contacts, including media houses in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

“We found the email that the Jamaica Constabulary Force news network pushed it out on. There were 94 recipients so, we have countered that part in a reply to their defense to say that you have (and we have the proof of it) sent the email,” Samuels said.

He continued, “We sent the email contacts list to them in the reply where it showed that they sent it to 94 recipients, half of which were news houses in Jamaica and the Caribbean. So, they have slaughtered my client saying (in) their defense that they didn’t cause it to be published and they were caught with their hands in the cookie jar with 94 recipients of their emails sending out falsehood that one; he was arrested for cocaine that no other news media seemed to have caught, and that he has a conviction for marijuana which is a criminal offense committed by the Jamaica Constabulary Force.”

The press release, titled ‘JCF Statement on Stop Order Allegations’, was issued on July 6, 2022, after Popcaan alleged on July 5 last year that the Jamaican government had a role in his continued detention at airports each time he entered the UK.

In the release, the JCF sought to explain that the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) had issued a green notice alerting authorities to Popcaan’s alleged arrest for cocaine possession in 2011, and a conviction for marijuana possession in 2009, both in Barbados, and that this may have led to the immigration issues that the Ova Dweet singer faced in the UK.

However, in the lawsuit filed against the Attorney General in the Supreme Court of Jamaica, Popcaan contended that he “has never been arrested in Barbados or any other place for possession of cocaine” and that his “conviction in relation to marijuana” was expunged from criminal records in April 2016.

According to the lawsuit, filed in the Supreme Court Of Jamaica on July 8, 2022, Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act of Barbados stipulates that “a rehabilitated person shall, in relation to any expunged conviction, for all purposes in law, be deemed to be a person who has never been charged with, prosecuted for, convicted of or sentenced.”

It added that the Act “makes it an offence, punishable by imprisonment, to disclose that a person whose conviction has been expunged, has committed, been charged with or convicted for an offence which was the subject of an expunged conviction.”

“The JCF nonetheless included [Popcaan’s] expunged conviction in the press release,” it continued.

On the matter of the alleged arrest for cocaine possession, the lawsuit claimed that the “JCF maliciously published the said defamatory words, in that they failed to carry out any or any proper investigations in pursuance of the due administration of justices, or otherwise, before publishing the press release.”

“The said defamatory words were calculated and/or intended to and/or tended to injure and/or degrade and/or malign [Popcaan], exposing him to hatred, contempt and ridicule and therefore tended to lower him in the estimation of right thinking members of society and within his profession.”

Popcaan is seeking general damages, damages for defamation, interest, legal costs, and any further relief that the Court may deem fit.

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed last year, Samuel told the media that taxpayers would feel the pinch if his client is successful in the legal battle.

“I would think this may be one of the biggest libel cases that ever been filed in Jamaica. It is the taxpayers, who will have to pay out multi-million dollars in compensation to Popcaan, if we succeed in this claim. And we are confident we will succeed,” he said.

When asked for the dollar figure that he expected from the court, Samuels said that’s for the judge to determine.

“When you’re suing for general damages or damages, you don’t put a dollar figure. He [the Judge] will look at former cases,” he explained at the time.